Reviewed by FRANCESCA RUDKIN
Herald rating * *
First-rate director Philip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), and a credible cast can't save this whodunnit psychological thriller from its lousy script. Or from the trappings of a lousy script.
Ashley Judd is Jessica Shepard, a San Francisco street cop who gets promoted to homicide detective. The daughter of a cop who went on a killing spree when she was a child, Jessica likes to unwind by having rough sex with men she picks up in bars, and drinks red wine until she passes out.
Her first case is hunting down a serial killer who is murdering men she has had intimate relationships with. Jessica realises that this is no coincidence, and the viewer starts wondering how many men she has slept with in the San Francisco area.
As Jessica questions her sanity and becomes the prime suspect, the film begins to fall apart. A range of suspects are obviously presented, and the twists are clumsily managed. Judd plays cute as pie with a tendency to kick men in the balls as predicted, but that's the problem. We've seen her in this role before.
A few pockets of suspense can't save this film from its muddled plot; one can only wonder what Kaufman was thinking.
CAST: Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, Ashley Judd, David Strathairn
DIRECTOR: Philip Kaufman
RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes
RATING: M (violence, offensive language and sex scenes)
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts and Berkeley
Twisted
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